


Jumbled

by QueenOfAllCorgis



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Hurt Klaus Hargreeves, Klaus has dyslexia, The Umbrella Academy doesn't have a special education unit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-08-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 09:42:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25847524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenOfAllCorgis/pseuds/QueenOfAllCorgis
Summary: Klaus has dyslexia.The Umbrella Academy doesn't have a special education department.Or, Klaus always thought he was stupid because he couldn't read.
Comments: 35
Kudos: 462





	Jumbled

**Author's Note:**

> I read this prompt and it broke my heart. I'm a special education teacher and have seen this so many times. 
> 
> In this chapter there are some ableist slurs and something said that was racially insensitive.

A hot prickle of panic ran down his spine when Allison stood up and walked confidently to the front, handing Grace her test with a smug smile. 

Five was next, looking more bored than pleased with himself.

Just a few minutes later, after some furious scribbling, Diego and Luther scrambled to their feet and practically raced to turn their tests in too. Luther beat Diego by a second which Klaus knew would lead to Number Two sulking for the rest of the day. 

Nervously, he glanced around to see that it was just him, Vanya and Ben left. 

Klaus knew his siblings, he knew that they were hesitant and cautious with everything. They liked to double, triple check their answers until they turned them in nervously. Then they would compare answers afterwards, anxiously waiting until Reginald read out the results at dinner that night. 

But...at least they had something written down.

Klaus had tried. Damn it, he had tried. He covered his ears with his hands and squinted down at the text in a desperate effort to make sense of it without any distractions. His pencil tapped on the desk and he gnawed on his lip.

Then, like always, Ben and Vanya passed the tests in and he was left alone. 

“Wasting your time again Number Four?” his father’s voice made him wince and Klaus hunched over his test, fiddling with the corner that he had ripped up slightly. “Why am I not surprised?”

The test was pulled out from under his arm and Klaus slouched further, cheeks already burning with humiliation. Every second that passed stretched by forever, Reginald’s blank expression giving nothing away as he read through the answers Klaus had circled. 

“I can see you have put absolutely no effort,” he flinched. “Not one of these is correct.”

He stared at his hands, studying the flaking black polish from his and Allison’s last spa day. Reginald was silent and it made things worse, the tension hovering over him like an axe about to fall. 

“Well, I’m not super invested in the reading...you know? The history of Spain isn’t that interesting,” he mumbled. 

“It’s a reading about Sparta.”

Great.

“Put your hands on the desk,” Klaus felt his stomach drop but he placed his hands on top of the desktop, fingers spread. “‘The agoge was an important part of Spartan life as stated in the above passage. What is the agoge?’ The answer is military training but you chose religious idols. That question was meant to be easy, something Grace insisted on.”

His cane cracked down across his knuckles and Klaus jerked back with a yelp. 

The reading of the rest of the questions went in a very similar manner. With every wrong answer he got a sharp whack across the hands and by the end of the test he was left in tears with bleeding, bruised knuckles. 

“Two correct out of fifty,” Reginald frowned. “A four percent, how fitting.”

Klaus didn’t answer, cradling his hands to his chest instead. Shame burned in every bit of him, made only worse by the ghosts lingering just outside his sight taunting him. Reginald waved him on, clearly making it clear that he wasn’t even worth a dismissal. 

He scurried out of the room, shoulders hunched and eyes on the floor.

Of course Reginald couldn’t leave it at that. At dinner that night Klaus picked at his food and shrank down as their father read out their test results. Allison preened over her amazing score and Luther sulked when Diego got two points higher than him. 

“And Number Four made an abysmal four percent on this exam,” everyone’s eyes flicked to him and Five let out a bark of laughter, grin twisting into something mean. 

“Seriously? You’re that stupid?” Five taunted. 

He wanted to run but instead Klaus just tilted his chin up. “Why does it matter? It’s not like we’re going to college or anything. I may not be book smart but I got my street smarts.”

“Street smarts?” Five sneered.

“Oh for sure, do you know how to suppress a gag reflex when you’re sucking cock?”

The caning that resulted from that comment left him barely able to walk but it was worth it. He couldn’t stand another moment in that room with everyone staring at him. He left Reginald’s office with an order to spend the rest of the weekend alone in his room studying and limped back to his bedroom. 

“Hey,” Ben’s soft voice made him jump and he steadied himself with a hand on the wall. “You okay?”

“Peachy,” Klaus mumbled and pushed past his brother to stumble into his room, collapsing onto the bed. 

Ben followed, feet quiet on the floor. “Do you need help? I got an ice pack.”

Wordless, Klaus held out a hand and accepted the ice pack before laying it across his shoulders where the cane had done the most damage. He then closed his eyes in an effort to not see his brother’s sad, sad eyes. 

“I can help you study, you know,” Ben said softly. 

“Way to be a stereotype Bento Box,” Klaus grumbled, knowing it was a nasty thing to say. 

“Fine,” Ben’s voice had an edge to it now. “No need to be a dick about it.”

He kept silent until the door slammed closed and he was alone with the ghosts. It was then that Klaus allowed himself to cry. 

-

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?”

“What?”

“Are you trying to cheat me, you little junkie?”

“No need for name calling. I don’t know what you mean.”

“It was five pills for thirty bucks. Not thirty pills for five.”

“Well excuuuuse me, numbers get all jumbled in my head. I can get you the money...just let me have one for now then.”

“You fucking idiot, you don’t have money for one pill. God, are you retarded or something?”

“Yeah, that’s me, your resident stupid junkie.”

-

It was bound to mess things up eventually. 

Klaus had learned how to deal with it. He had learned how to joke his way out of the shame his low grades brought. He made noises instead of reading aloud and eventually people gave up on teaching him.

It should have made him sad but it just made him feel so damn relieved. 

Living on the streets gave him little time to practice and he didn’t need it anyway. He was fine, he didn’t need to be some big bookworm anyway. 

(he still bought Vanya’s book...it just stayed under his pillow at rehab without ever being opened)

(he didn’t want to read it anyway)

Then The Umbrella Academy formed back together, some kind of mismatched group of depressing has beens, but they tried. Diego was the one who really got them back into their crime fighting ways, telling them that they had to use their powers for good.

All kinds of bullshit like that might have given Diego and Luther a boner for justice but he wasn’t really feeling it. 

Still, he tagged along. He needed something to fill his time if he was going to keep his tremulous grasp on sobriety. 

Most of the team was inside the bank, fighting the robbers who had come with surprisingly high tech weapons. If he peeked through the windows Klaus could see the flashes of blue from Five and the glint off of Deigo’s knives as they flew through the air. 

As usual, he was look out. 

What was there even to look out for? They were all inside. 

Klaus knew he would get a talking to from Luther but he still made his way to the Jack in a Box next door and got an order of the mini tacos before perching himself on a nearby wall, munching away. 

Then someone ran out of the bank, bags clutched to his chest as he threw himself into a waiting van. Huh, so they really did keep money in bags...where were the giant green dollar signs?

He was midchew when he realized it was one of the robbers, jumping to his feet as he coughed. The van screeched down the side street, right past Klaus who had to jump back to avoid getting run over. 

“Klaus!” Diego shouted, sprinting down the alley towards him. “Get the license plate!”

Oh, okay. 

He stared at the mess of letters and numbers, mind going completely blank. It was like his brain was struggling to comprehend that there was something there, much less keeping it in his memory. 

The van sped away and the rest of his family joined him, breathing hard and clearly winded after a fight.

“Shit,” Luther growled. 

“It’s fine, Klaus got the plate,” Diego sighed, running a hand over his face. “We’ll just get it traced.”

“Oh...I...I didn’t get it?” He shrunk down, fingers tightening on the mini taco box. 

Five’s sharp eyes shot to him. “What?”

“Great,” Diego sighed. “It had writing on the side. What did it say there?”

“I didn’t get that either,” Klaus tried to smile sheepishly but the others clearly weren’t amused. 

The anger simmered the whole way home, Klaus just slouched in his seat while the others threw insults at him. They were right though. He had one job and he was too stupid to do that job.

“I mean, come on Klaus,” Diego ranted as they walked in. “It wasn’t that fucking hard! A kindergartener could do it!”

He winced. 

“Are you surprised though? When has he ever shown he has anything but the intelligence of a six year old,” Five snapped. 

Vanya looked up from where she was sitting on the couch, frowning. She still felt uncomfortable going out on missions when she was still trying to get control over her powers. Clearly she didn’t expect them to come back ganging up on one of their siblings. 

It didn’t look like it was going to end anytime soon either. 

“Then I will spare you my presence!” He announced loudly, trying to mask the hurt in his voice. “I’m off to take a bath.”

“And just like that the average IQ in the room shoots up fifty points,” Five spat, barbs cutting deep. 

“God, in her infinite wisdom, knew that she couldn’t make someone as hot as I am smart,” he quipped back as he made his way to the stairs. “Imagine the power there? Unbelievable.”

He swept up the stairs, ignoring the ache in his chest and the burning in his eyes. It wasn’t until he turned the knobs and poured way too much Mr. Bubbles into the water that he let himself shed a few tears. 

The water was a touch too hot but he liked that, breath catching when he slid under the bubbles. Klaus tipped his head back and let his eyes closed when a hesitant knock on the door made him frown.

“My dick’s out and I’m not putting it away,” he shouted as a warning but the door opened anyway. 

Allison walked into the room, not even looking at him as she took a seat on the closed toilet. She did scowl when he kicked a bit of bubbles on her but annoyingly stayed. Glaring, Klaus sunk down and waited for her to say her peace.

“Claire has dyslexia,” was what she ended up saying. 

Klaus blinked. He had no earthly idea what that was but ‘having’ something was never a good thing. “Oh...is she okay? How bad is it?”

He wouldn’t admit not knowing what dyslexia was. 

He wasn’t about to show that he didn’t know something else. 

Still, Allison gave him a funny look and her lips pursed together. “It started when she was in Kindergarten, when I was still there. She had a lot of trouble with her letters and struggled putting them together.”

“Oh,” a pit formed in his stomach. 

“And...I was so embarrassed. I wanted my kid to be the best, you know? Instead she was...she was struggling. Her teacher suggested she get tested for special education and I thought my world was ending. I thought they were going to put her in a class for dumb kids and promptly forget about her,” Allison hugged her stomach. “And Patrick was the good parent. I didn’t even want her tested but he insisted and...she had dyslexia.”

Klaus frowned, hearing that word again. 

“It wasn’t anything she did or we did...it just happens. They told me that it was more common than I thought. Like...usually there’s a path for your brain. You see the letters, your brain puts them together and then you can read it. But, with her it wasn’t doing that. Things got lost along the way,” the pit grew heavier. 

“But she’s okay now?” He asked hesitantly. 

“I mean, there’s no cure or whatever. She gets pulled out by specialists and is getting extra help. Patrick tells me she is doing so much better,” a small smile quirked at her lips. “And I’m educating myself. I’m learning about it and I’m learning that it isn’t a source of shame, it just is.”

He knew where this was going but didn’t want to speak the words into existence. 

“I noticed that you hide a lot,” she continued. “You joke and ignore and...you’re really good at it.”

“Thanks,” Klaus mumbled. 

“But maybe, maybe it isn’t something you can help. You’re not stupid Klaus,” he instinctively wanted to argue against that but something made him stop. “You’re not. You’re so good at solving puzzles and seeing things in a different way. That’s another part of dyslexia you know? Their IQs are usually pretty high, just reading and sometimes math suffers.”

“So, why are you telling me this?” Klaus asked, running his fingers through his hair to slick it back with bubbly water. “To make me see the power in being different? To see that I might have a hard time reading? News flash Allison, I know that. I knew that every time dad hit me for getting a question wrong. You can’t fix stupid, you know?”

She looked so sad that he had to look away. 

“I’m sorry,” she finally whispered. 

“Yeah, me too,” he sighed. “But, it is what it is.”

After a pause, Allison slunk off the toilet and sat on the floor next to the tub. “There are people who can help. We can get you tested and-”

“And what? I’ll learn to read like in a Hallmark movie, go to college and cure cancer?” He laughed bitterly. “Nah, it’s fine. I’m fine.”

“Wouldn’t it be nice to have a name for it though? To know what’s wrong?” She looked a little desperate at that. “Come on Klaus, think about how-”

“My bubbles are about to disappear so unless you want a little peek you should skedaddle,” he waggled his fingers and closed his eyes, tipping his head back against the lip of the tub. 

“Alright. Fine.”

She left and he pretended that the wetness on his cheeks was from the water. 

What if she was right? What if all this shame, all the struggle and all the pain had just been because of something so simple? 

And if he had been a normal kid in a normal life, could he have gotten help?

-

“So...maybe being tested for something that I might not have might not be the worst idea.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, I’ll get in touch with a diagnostician. Klaus, this is a good thing.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“No really, it is.”


End file.
